I always thought that it was difficult, especially in the short run, for governors to have significant positive effects on the economy. Apparently Kansas and Wisconsin are proving that you can have significant negative effects quite easily. Kansas may be good for people sitting on lots of cash and unearned income but the average guy trying to get his kids educated, using the roads to get around or just finding a job is kind of out of luck. If we ever get a good economy going you would thing there would be high rates of out migration.

The effects will be long term with declining education and public investment. Walker and Brownback will be the gifts that keep on giving for the next 50 years. But the Koch Brothers (Kansas) and Hendricks, Menard, and the Johnson Family (Wisconsin), billionaires all will enjoy their feudal privileges in their realms.,

Steve Kopits: How many times do I have to say “fixed effects”? Over the 1976-2106M09 period, Missouri unemployment averages 6.05%, Kansas 4.70%. So the fact the current unemployment rates are so close is really bad news for KS.

I think it’s important to note, whether you’re a conservative or not, that understanding the numbers and related dynamics are important. Ideology may inform the objectives of policy, but it is not policy of itself.

I’m thinking of writing a piece on this, maybe for CNBC. One of the key problems of the Trump administration is that they have a weak understanding of the actual numbers and functional relationships. Bannon carries the title of chief strategist, but he’s really the chief ideologist. This is an important post, but he’s missing a numbers guy. He needs a policy designer, someone who can convert ideology into comprehensible and acceptable policy.

On a related note, in today’s “gold standard” Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages.

Total private sector change in jobs Sept 2015-Sept 2016

Minn +40,089
Wis +25,562

Guess which state used its billion-dollar surplus on investments (especially in education), and guess which state cut enacted major cuts to higher ed and local governments to close a deficit due to stupid tax cuts?